Enrollment of uninsured patients in a program with benefits comparable to those offered under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 resulted in significant healthcare cost savings, a new study finds. Published in the February issue of Health Affairs, the research sheds light on the potential outcomes of newly enacted healthcare reforms.

As uncertainty simmers in Greece over how best to handle widespread financial crisis in the Eurozone, UC Irvine economist Stergios Skaperdas offers sobering advice: “Greece needs to default on its public debt and exit the Eurozone,” he told attendees late last year at an Athens conference hosted by The Economist. The strategy may prove prudent for others in the financially strapped 17-member-state union, he added.

Cathy Zhang, economics graduate student, is the 2011-12 recipient of the School of Social Sciences’ Sheen T. Kassouf Fellowship. Named in honor of the highly respected UC Irvine economics scholar and pioneer of modern finance, the $10,000 fellowship recognizes an economics graduate student each year who demonstrates excellence in coursework and research.

In a study published in the July issue of Industrial and Labor Relations Review, UCI economist David Neumark finds that a high minimum wage, when coupled with the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), increases employment and earnings among single mothers, especially those with very low family incomes. The findings are surprising, says Neumark, given that most of his work has focused on the adverse effects of minimum wages on low-skilled workers.

A Russian telecommunications minister, a fake business serving as a front for embezzlement operations, and offshore bank accounts in the British Virgin Islands.  Sound like the plot of a Hollywood mystery thriller?  Try an anthropological study by Bill Maurer, UCI anthropology professor. 

Location, location, location. That’s what UC Irvine economics professor David Neumark says is key to understanding how California’s economy has managed to stay in line with or surpass the national growth average, despite the Golden State’s less than favorable rankings in popular business climate indexes.

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From 2005-25, an expected 22 million Chinese bachelors looking for love will fail to find a mate, says UCI anthropologist Susan Greenhalgh, and it won’t be for lack of want.  The problem, she says, is a residual effect of the country’s more than 30-year-old one-child per couple policy, the highly successful national birth control measure which encouraged couples to eliminate daughters in an effort to end up with a son.

Prospects for better employment may be the common driving force behind students’ college aspirations, but the key to keeping them connected and enrolled has a lot to do with peer-bonding experiences and organizational involvement, says UCI sociology graduate student Daisy Reyes.  According to her research, this is particularly true for ethnic minorities.